Any discussion of the background art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
There are available a wide variety of space lighting systems. These have more conventionally included a circular array of six tungsten lights mounted to a singular generally circular plate. The plate is suspended or otherwise mounted to a gantry, a stand, or another support frame to provide the required lighting. While these lighting systems provide a good quality of light, to provide the required light intensity they need to draw considerable current and, consequently, they generate considerable heat. Moreover, in an attempt to allow sufficient passive cooling of the lights—that is, to avoid the need for active cooling—the six lights are spaced apart, which increases the overall volume of the system and makes colour mixing difficult to achieve. Accordingly, where different colours are required use is made of multiple lights, skirts, filters and other additional equipment and accessories.
As a partial solution to the above limitations LED space lights have been developed, such as that disclosed in US 20130176707. This particular space light makes use of two metal plates between which six radially divergent LED light modules are fixedly located. The plates include aligned apertures to mimic the shape and configuration of a traditional film reel, and the light modules are viewable through those apertures and project light through those apertures. In practice, the metal plates have a radius that is approximately equal to the circular plate that has been used in the earlier existing tungsten light systems to provide a degree of familiarity to those using and operating the lights, and to accommodate existing accessories. However, this system is of only relatively low power (typically about 500 Watts to 700 Watts) to remain passively cooled. Accordingly, it is limited in application or, alternatively, a greater number of such units are required to be used simultaneously to provide the desired level of lighting.
A further alternative to the more conventional tungsten lights is provided by a square array of LED emitters. Such a system is supplied by Production Resource Group, LLC and sold under the model designation OHM™. This system is rated at typically 500 Watts, notwithstanding the use of active cooling with fans. That is, the amount of light produced is relatively low, and the noise level higher than is typical for a passively cooled system. The latter factor, in a studio environment in particular, is highly disadvantageous.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved lighting system and a method of lighting.